Malcolm Gesthuysen sends us the following comments and a game from the recent Ealing v Hendon II away encounter (4th April); "MG (graded 138) v S.Shalabayev (142), (3.5-4.5) 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Bc5 5 O-O Nf6 6 Nxe5 Nxe4 7 Qg4!? (Suetin gives Qe2 - though without a6 and Ba4) Ng5 8 d4 Nxe5 9 Re1! Ne6 10 Rxe5 b5 11 Qxg7 Rf812 dxc5 bxa4 13 Bh6 Qe7 14 Qxf8+ Qxf8? 15 Bxf8 Kxf8 16 Nc3 f6 17 Rd5 Rb8 18 Nxa4 Rb4 19 b3 Rg4 20 c6 dxc6 21 Rd3 Nf4? 22 Rd8+ Ke7 23 Rxc8 and White won!

Jonathan Landau won again. David Jones (aged 84) won again (5/6!)."

On the same evening we held the monthly 'First Saturday' Blitz tournament, with 14 players it was the quality of the field that stood out rather than the quantity of entrants! It was a very close event, with the three eventual winners all taking points from each other. Gary, a managing partner of legal firm Baker & MacKenzie, had the toughest final round, having black against Steven Coles, who on a good day might be expected to be in contention for first place.

1st: Gary Senior (176), Caius Turner (169) and Ray Cannon (161) all 5/6 and £10.00 each. Shane McCabe (127) 4/6, Helge Hjort (159) 3.5/6 and the Hendon Fiver, David Ben-Nathan (145), Salvatore Pepe (140), Faye Ainscow, an off-form Steven Coles (164) all 3/6, Thomas Senior (98) 2.5/6, Ray Jennings (130), Neil McQuillan (100) 2/6, Edwin Lande and Simon Samet on half a point.